A Series of Firsts: PhiDE’s 3rd Anatomy Fashion Show
Yup, you read that right: “Anatomy Fashion Show.” It consists of students volunteers having an organ system painted on their body by other students and then modeling in front of a crowd. Sounds fun, right? The Anatomy Fashion Show is one of Phi Delta Epsilon’s (our International Medical Fraternity on campus) ways to collect funds to donate to their Children’s Miracle Network Hospital, and all proceeds go to the Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago. I remember looking at the info for the AFS and thinking “Oh that looks cool! I wish I could go!” Well, this year I took it a step further and decided that I would be modeling myself (for the children, of course!), opening my own fundraising page in order to support the cause.
As soon as I had committed myself to be part of the AFS, I felt extremely conscious about my body and how I would look that day and started getting worried that nobody would donate towards my page. However, I remembered that this event was for a cause, a GOOD cause, and that even if it meant getting out of my comfort zone, I would be doing a good thing. Therefore, I put myself together and decided that if I was going to do this, I was going to do it willingly and to my best abilities. And so I did: I started posting on my social media a week before, letting all of my friends know what I was doing and that if they wanted to support me, they need only to donate $1. Thankfully, many of my friends responded, and on the day before the AFS, I felt like I was really going to enjoy this.
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I had no idea how much fun being painted on was going to be. Before the day of the event, I had chosen that I wanted to have the female reproductive system painted on me that day, and that itself had brought up the fears that maybe my artist would do something small on me, and that it would be barely noticeable. Fortunately, my artist, Emily, had come with an open mind and an ace under her sleeve. Seeing that the theme for the Fashion Show was “Heavenly Bodies,” Emily had the idea to depict the female reproductive system as our Solar System, floating in space and representing the center of my body, my galaxy. I was fascinated by the idea, and let her paint my whole body in dark blue to simulate. As Emily finished the last touches and added some rhinestones to simulate the stars, I was in shock by the transformation my body had undergone in the lapse of two hours: I had gone from a normal body to a celestial one and was in awe at how beautiful it looked. Now it was just time to model that masterpiece down the runway.
When the time came to model, I have to say, I was so nervous. Not only had I been running around the building for around 4 hours in only my underwear and covered in paint, but I was also very cold. To say the least, I was very excited to get the Fashion Show started, as I wanted to see what I would do on stage. As my turn came to walk down the runwa, I froze and stopped in my tracks. I now look back and think that it must have been very funny to see me, but I was petrified at that moment. Thankfully, I was able to snap out of it and continue strutting down the runway, bedazzling the crowd with Emily’s beautiful art and my awkward modeling moves.
The AFS was a success: PhiDE was able to reach their donation goal, and everybody who had been involved in the event that day was happy and satisfied with themselves. The audience also seemed to have had fun, as they congratulated us and the artists on our way out. And on a personal note, I am so happy that I participated in such a fun experience. I hope to be part of it again in the next couple of years, hopefully with a friend of mine strutting down the runway with me next time to make it twice as fun. 🙂